The present invention relates to data collection from a vehicle, and more particularly to a data collection system which provides an overview of vehicle subsystems to quickly extract on-board data and identify the severity of any vehicle subsystem faults.
Commonly, on-board data recorders gather vehicle information from a plurality of vehicle subsystems such as the engine, the transmission and the braking system among others. Such data recorders are specifically applicable to heavy duty vehicles for analysis by a fleet operations facility. The data is stored on-board the vehicle for later examination and tracking should a problem with the particular subsystem develop.
Each particular subsystem typically requires a separate extraction and analysis software package to review the stored data. A technician must therefore be familiar with the software package and data presentation format of each particular subsystem. The data from each particular subsystem is commonly provided in a spreadsheet like format which may be time consuming and difficult to analyze. The technician may therefore avoid performing a full diagnostic on each individual subsystem until a subsystem problem is identified by a vehicle operator. Such identification typically may not occur until the underlying subsystem problem has become acute. Such identification is less than ideal.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an overview of vehicle subsystems to identify the severity of any faults of all vehicle subsystems in a timely manner.
A vehicle data storage system in communication with a diagnostic unit according to the present invention provides a xe2x80x9cquick faultxe2x80x9d screen which summarizes data stored within a storage device of the vehicle data storage system. The xe2x80x9cquick faultxe2x80x9d screen displays a plurality of keys organized in matrix format to display an overview of vehicle subsystem faults conditions through animation and/or coloring of each key in response to event data stored within the storage device.
Should no problematic vehicle operating conditions be recorded, all of the keys in the xe2x80x9cquick faultxe2x80x9d screen will be colored green to indicate all subsystems are operating satisfactory. A technician is thereby rapidly apprised of the vehicle subsytems status upon connection of a data interface between the diagnostic unit and vehicle data storage system. No laborious spreadsheet-like analysis is required to determine that all subsystems are operating satisfactory.
Should one or more of the subsystem control modules recognize a problematic vehicle operating condition, the event data therefrom will be stored in the storage device. The associated key on the xe2x80x9cquick faultxe2x80x9d screen will then be animated/colored as appropriate to the fault condition. For example only, a yellow key will represent a single occurrence of a triggering event while a red key will represent multiple triggering events for that fault condition.
By selecting any animated/colored key, a more detailed representation of the event data stored in the storage device for the particular subsystem is represented. The detailed subsystem screen presents the event data recorded within the storage device in a graphical and/or tabulation format showing associated subsystem parameters over time.
The present invention presents an overview of all the subsystems and, if desired, a detailed report of the faulted subsystems by selecting the animated/colored key. By then reviewing the more detailed information for the faulted subsystem, the technician can quickly reach an initial determination of whether further investigation is warranted.